mouthfuln.

?c1450 Life St. Cuthbert (1891) 1295 (MED) Þe horse..drow doune of þe house thakk; Amange his mouthe full, as it happed, he drow doune a clathe.

a1500 (?a1425) tr. Secreta Secret. (Lamb.) 77 (MED) A mouth-full of hoot water, ilk morwe twyes ressayued, sholde make a man so hool.

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 247/1 Mouthfull, baufre.

?1533 G. Du Wes Introductorie for to lerne Frenche sig. Sii In their mouthfull takyng refection.

1609 W. Shakespeare Pericles v. 73 A [sc. a whale] playes and tumbles, Dryuing the poore Fry before him, And at last, deuowre them all at a mouthfull.

1692 R. L'Estrange Fables xxviii. 28 A Goat that was going out one Morning for a Mouthful of Fresh Grass, Charg'd her Kid..not to Open the Door.

1693 J. Dryden tr. Juvenal in J. Dryden et al. tr. Juvenal Satires iii. 52 When..You to your own Aquinum shall repair, To take a mouthful of sweet Country air.

1748 T. Smollett Roderick Random I. lvi. 217 I can't have a mouthful of English for love or money.

1777 J. Woodforde Diary 25 May (1924) I. 204 He..would not eat one mouthful of it.

1827 M. Faraday Chem. Manip. iv. 113 Acquire the power of using the air of one inspiration by mouthfuls.

1837 W. Irving Adventures Capt. Bonneville I. 176 They were three entire days without a mouthful of food.

1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VI. 71 He was continually bringing up mouthfuls of dark-coloured mucus.

1936 C. Sandburg People, Yes 60 Don't take a mouthful bigger than your mouth.

1964 L. Woolf Beginning Again i. 79 For weeks almost at every meal one had to sit, often for an hour or more, trying to induce her to eat a few mouthfuls.

1989 EuroBusiness Jan. 62/3 The purchase price of $295 million, though only a mouthful for the Swedish company, was regarded as high.

1871 G. MacDonald in Scribner's Monthly Mar. 554/2 Her father grinned with his whole mouthful of teeth, and looked at her with amusement.

1938 D. Baker Young Man with Horn i. iv. 38 A mouthful of white, white teeth that flashed out like so many lighthouses whenever he opened his mouth.

1966 A. Higgins Langrishe, go Down xxiv. 175 He yawned. Imogen looked down into a mouthful of bad teeth.

1998 N.Y. Mag. 14 Sept. 88/1 Shorter than her videos let on, with muscular upper arms and a mouthful of big, straight teeth, Crow sits on a couch fiddling absentmindedly with a bagel and shifting her feet a little antsily.

1883 Atlantic Monthly July 10/1 ‘He taught me to pronounce the name Königgratz, so—Conigherazzo,’ said the maestro... ‘Capperi! What a mouthful,’ said I.

1913 D. Scott Humorous Sc. Stories 92 Eccentricities..sic a moofa o' a wird.

1929 M. Allingham Mystery Mile xxiv. 228 ‘Sounds like a bit o' the Decameron to me,’ said Mr Lugg unexpectedly... ‘It is a bit of a mouthful,’ said Giles, ‘coming on top of everything else.’

1969 Y. Carter Mr Campion's Farthing iii. 20 Your correspondent has made such a mouthful of it..why not put it into straight English?

1993 Time Out 31 Mar. 141/1 Margo (a Spanish dancer who was born with a mouthful: Maria Marguerita Guadelupe Boldao y Castilla!).

1790 Sessions Papers Sept. 781/1 I never said a mouth full of ill against her in my life.

1884 D. Grant Lays & Legends of North 58 Ilka nicht I'sa gether them, And gie them..A mou'fu' o' a prayer.]

1916 J. Lait Beef, Iron & Wine 124 ‘These here is excitin' times.’ ‘Mouthful,’ said Luke.

1917 P. G. Wodehouse in Vanity Fair Mar. 39/1 I thank Mr. Sherwin for those kind words. There can be little doubt in the mind of any unprejudiced person that he has said a mouthful.

1929 A. Conan Doyle Maracot Deep vi. 165 He said a mouthful when he asked her to marry him.

1973 P. G. Wodehouse Bachelors Anonymous xii. 153 ‘Nice nurse?’ ‘Ah, there you have said a mouthful, Pickering. I have a Grade A nurse.’

1995 Ring July 69/2 He has the killer instinct of Jack Dempsey, and that's saying a mouthful.

1918 Aussie: Austral. Soldiers' Mag. Jan. 2/1 He vomited three mouthfuls of the great Australian slanguage over the figure on the road.]

1941 G. Legman in G. W. Henry Sex Variants II. 1175 Say a mouthful, to reprove or reprimand another homosexual verbally, incisively, and at great length.

1973 D. Potter Hide & Seek iv. 117 As Clyde touched her arm at the elbow, a gesture both proprietorial and questioning, she shook him off with a mouthful of venomous obscenities.

1999 Independent 3 May ii. 4/7 People flare up, lash out, ever eager to take their frustrations out on someone else. And in cities, women are just as quick to give a mouthful as men.